


Hello to Happiness

by tizarrior



Category: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni | Higurashi When They Cry
Genre: Dimension Travel, Inspired by Saikoroshi-Hen, Introspection, Melancholy, Memory World, Spoilers to Saikoroshi-Hen.. Very subtle but still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-16 18:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7280656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tizarrior/pseuds/tizarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rika reflects on herself and the worlds she has been through on a quiet night with Hanyuu.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hello to Happiness

Crimson reflected in the transparent glass and inside itself - a full moon that served the only light for the darkened confines of Rika and Satoko's one-room house. It was a moment of thoughtful reflection, solace that the young girl having lived through countless tragedies could simply not conceive anymore through the ruckus of their daily lives. Surely not through Mion's lively club activities. As much as they were a temporary amusement for a fate she knew was unavoidable, Hanyuu had been there to teach her more than once that hope would crumble. Clearly, that viewpoint would needed to have been nothing more than counterproductive to their cause.

Yet, now she had resigned to the endless game of Showa 58 quite on a verge. Keiichi Maebara would be the one to soon break the shackles of fate she had been fighting for well over a hundred years and nurture something so simple she hadn't thought was right there in front of her this entire time. Trust in your friends. How could she have, a warrior against fate battling to end the cycle of distrust between friends that would eventually erupt into a horrible tragedy, seclude her own self this way?

Initially, it was for the simple fact of their safety. What she had failed to realize was that the group in question were her unbeatable club members. A group that could surpass any odds with willpower alone, should they be thrown in their way. All it took was to combine that willpower to create a miracle. That is exactly what Keiichi taught her and precisely why he became such a valuable key piece to beating the June of Showa 58.

At the end of the world where Rena succumbed to her terminal stage, he had said himself "It was something so simple." How could we have not realized it sooner? Gradual withdrawal gave way to worsening doubt and in turn, the doubt would exacerbate to clear signs of L5. In a way, it became a telltale sign the host was giving the parasite a clear-cut way to take over their psyche. There was no way, at least as such a tight-knit group, they shouldn't have been the ones fighting against the odds. Alas, the paranoia and hallucinations managed to creep into their daily lives regardless and cast a shadow of suspicion onto eachother. One could say human nature was a innate factor to blame. Perhaps, humans were in part beings whose fundamental functions were ones geared towards doubt. From fear we culminate suspicion as a simple method of finding an answer. Although, if we only pile a need for more answers the parasite can easily turn the host towards a critical condition. 

Being thrust into the horridly altered dimension that was so far removed from the many other worlds she had traversed, Rika Furude was once again at a crossroads of fate. Although, saying the numerous other worlds had provided anything other than a "dead end" would have been a misconception in and of itself. For the first time, she was being provided a choice between two good worlds rather than a deadlock. What would be her decision?  There was only one. And that would be the world where all her friends were. Thinking about it now, to debate the idea simply deserved no more than chastise. Satoshi's absence was indeed unfortunate, as well as the downwards spiral that would soon sweep the village and everyone else's life. The dice will roll all 1s, but  through all these hardships would come out an important life lesson that Rika Furude had also spent so many decades fighting for. Until she could see the lesson herself. 

Loose fragments drifted in the air at the border of so many differently colored dimensions, ones dyed in deep grievances of scarlet and others where she had almost found the light at the end of the tunnel. A silent reflection with "Just a little and we would have made it." and "All we needed was to combine everyone's power." 

"Who was I, really?" The thought pooled inside Rika's mind, swimming like an ocean as deep as the wisdom and experience longevity had given her. At a certain point she had began to see herself as the true supernatural being itself. A witch that had grown cold and sought to play with fate solely for her amusement, only from stemming a cynical persona from it. Blurs between what had once been a normal human being and what was now an existence so separated from the happy life she could have given the Rika Furude of so many different worlds muddled her conscious and crudely speaking, drove it near a border of vexed exasperation. 

Even now, having awoken from the dream that Hanyuu had created and having returned to the bliss of the world they conjured over so many decades - All these thoughts still haunted her conscious on nights like this. She glanced at the Satoko in her futon, across from the open window and the sill she had loosely postured herself over, so serene and angelic in appearance - a defenseless image she knew was far different from the Satoko at school. In truth, she secretly reveled to be one of the only eyes to witness it. With tempted greed, she may have even wished to be the one and only one to see it, if it wasn't for that childish god that would pester her so. Taking the chopsticks that had been laid down next to her ankles, she unscrewed the tin lid of the jar right next to them, a overwhelming dark color pooling inside. In irritation, she stabbed at the kimchi having been labeled "Extra Hot" as a loud, distressed wail suddenly swept across the quiet room. 

"R-R-Rika! You promised..you wouldn't today!" The young, only in appearance by far, horned god pattered across the floorboards nervously while her transparent form busied itself flapping air into her mouth. 

"Quiet, you're going to wake up Satoko!" Rika hissed out under her breath, as the chopsticks with now discolored tips thrust into another piece of kimchi. Hanyuu teared up with a reddened face and could only shrivel up helplessly at the threat. She could see that something had been bothering the shrine maiden again as of late, although in honesty - with the experience of a god as old as herself, it would have been laughable for Rika to think she could have had even a flippant idea to conceal it from the sharpened perception of one. 

"What's wrong?" And at this moment, if even an inch of her mind understood how Hanyuu was, it would have been the wisest to not dodge the question if she wanted her to not too soon ensue an interrogation and light up the somber crimson in her eyes. Already, she could feel Hanyuu's palms entwined with her own in concern. Was she trying to say "I'm here for you"? Although, that may have brought some irony in the point considering their senses were already linked, so they were practically an inseparable entity. In that case, having Hanyuu probably felt no better for Rika than already being by herself. The thought only made her stab the chopstick more harshly at the kimchi and swallow away at it in frustration. Yet, there was no escaping the deep purple that had already begun to earnestly peer into her own, as she let out a small exhausted breath. 

"Hanyuu... who exactly am I?" 

Hanyuu couldn't help but suppress the startle that suddenly painted her expression and it only grew darker in her deep orbs. 

"You're Rika. Furude Rika. Who else, au?"

"How can you be sure?" Rika nodded her bangs at a low angle, only a smirk stretching to vision from their obscurity.  "There have been so many different Rika Furudes. How do you know which is the real one?"

"What are you saying, Rika? The one here of course, who else? The one I have been on over a hundred year journey with." Confusion was starting to mingle into Hanyuu's tone, which she couldn't very well contain anymore at the sudden questions. 

"But you are mistaken. Rika Furude disappeared a long time ago. The only remnant she has left behind since is a witch." Rika's eyes drooped while she still maintained a cheshire grin, swirling the red liquid in her other hand. 

Now Hanyuu's gaze had begun to lower into a glare when her eyes traveled to the wine that had always been so detestable to her, for Rika would always drink a concerning amount of it. So the drunken drivel she would spew on nights like this had already reached a point of no surprise. She wanted to snatch the glass away, although she already knew there was not much point in such an argument with a being who shared her senses. If anything, Rika would only mercilessly remove any and all orange concentrate from it the next night. Besides the kimchi, there wasn't as much of a fearsome substance to her as that wine she would drink greedily in a single gulp. 

"You've had too much to drink again. You should go to sleep. Satoko will be worried, you know?" Hanyuu grimaced, remembering how the hangover had once even caused Rika to take the day off, driving the younger Satoko nearly ill herself with concern.

Reaching the future they had been striving for surely shouldn't have given her an excuse for any more moping around. Or so is what Hanyuu thought. A hundred year journey through a repeating timeline, a timeline they thought would repeat indefinitely. This is the most happiness Rika had felt in her entire life, or rather from any other life. She greeted it with a warm smile, eyelids drooped open next to the sleeping Hanyuu and had ripped out the June from the calendar of 1983 at long last. Everyone else was smiling as innocent and unreserved as possible, she had been the only one still hiding fear inside her heart on nights like this. 'You fool. We have finally reached our happy end. After fighting for what seemed like an eternity, we can finally live in a Hinamizawa where our peaceful days won't be bloodstained by the hands of tragedy. What more could you ever ask for?' Rika continued to chastise herself, trying to understand the elusive swirl of emotion that haunted her mind. 

All of a sudden, a warmth drew and spread throughout her chest, a different kind unlike the one that sank in the pit of her stomach from these long nights of reflective and depressive drinking. She felt Hanyuu radiating an aura unlike that was her usual crybaby self and highlighted her divine presence even more so. The girl had embraced the younger girl with hair color the same shade as this deep midnight sky and only smiled gently in the clasp. The gesture was a surprise after the sullen silence that had pierced the already dead quiet room, but Hanyuu now understood. Why Rika would feel like this, despite obtaining their fortune of a lifetime. It was a sense of guilt. After all the worlds they had fought through, there wouldn't have been of a much of a surprise to this emotion festering. 'What about my friends in all the other timelines? The odds are that they didn't survive either in many of them, but there are still worlds where they were left all alone as well." Unspoken, but nonetheless emotions that Hanyuu could now fully understand through this linked sense. Even before Rika could make sense of them herself. 

"Rika..." She began with a tender softness in her voice that was honest and free. "You are Rika Furude. The girl who sacrificed herself over and over for the sake of her friends. Fighting an endless journey through time, even if you wanted to give up countless times. You even taught me not to give up. Everyone was working so hard, yet I was the only one left out because I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe we could win." A single tear slipped from the old girl's pale face.

"You have learned so many important lessons from everyone. Especially from Keiichi. Now we're faced with a new lesson - living in the present and letting go of the past. I understand your grief over the defunct worlds, but I'm sure the remnant pieces from them even now believed somewhere in their heart, they put their hope into this world. Through their regrets, this was all they could do. For their sake, we must continue to be happy and not take our days for granted anymore." She continued while glancing Rika clench her fist with steady strength. In the horizon the morning sun had already began to gradually approach from it's veil. 

"You're right." Rika sighed, setting her glass down and rubbing a hand at her sleep-deprived expression. "It's always amazing how you can say such cool things at times like this, you brat." She smirked snidely at the god next to her in a small, brazen grin.

"I'm older than you, au au!" Hanyuu cried out, once again tapping her feet at the ground restlessly in a reverted mood. A small yawn protruded from the cocooned futon, as both of them looked in surprise. Ah, time always seemed to pass by at such an capricious pace.

Satoko rose clumsily from her slumber and trotted on unsteady footsteps to the sink, still half-asleep. From the drowsy daydream-like state, unbeknownst to her she had picked up Rika's toothbrush instead from the small cup they both kept theirs in. Hanyuu and Rika only giggled on as they watched the scene in amusement, heading towards the kitchen where Satoko would complain over breakfast not being done yet since this morning was Rika's turn.  

Hanyuu's words would continue to run through her mind, not having been the first to leave such a deep impression onto Rika. Indeed, their journey had been a hellishly repeating battle for so long, there was no cost or effect to belittle it this way. No matter how the Keiichi, Rena, Mion, or Satoko of the other worlds may have been left behind they would have wished for this world all the same. She stole a glance at the sky after setting the water brewing and couldn't help but imagine how they must've now all been warmly watching over her and the others. 'I have to do my best, even now.' is what she felt the need to remind herself from here on out, to have the funnest club activities that there have ever been and establish a sense of trust among eachother mutually assured of not being crumbled any longer. 

 "For I am not a witch anymore, but Rika Furude." a silent remark protruded under her breath, stretching another small grin onto her face. "And this world is now my home."


End file.
